The most talented 'young' traders at JPMorgan

Yesterday, JPMorgan announced the names of the 117 new managing directors (MDs) in its corporate and investment bank. Just 23 were in sales and trading, compared to over 40 in M&A and corporate finance (ie. the investment banking division).

The distribution of JPMorgan's new MDs looks surprising. Sales and trading divisions tend, generally to employ far more people than investment banking divisions (IBD). Research firm Coalition says there were nearly 35,000 people working in front office equities and fixed income trading teams globally last year, compared to 17,000 in IBD. Just four of JPMorgan's MD promotions were corporate bankers, so it can't even be said that this bumped up the bank's IBD numbers.

In the circumstances, it might therefore be considered that the 23 markets professionals who made MD at JPMorgan this year were particularly talented. All the more so if they weren't managing desks and were therefore (presumably) promoted on the basis of individual pnl alone.

There are just 10 new JPMorgan MDs who fall into this category. Their names are listed below. They are, we would suggest, the best of the bank's young(ish) trading talent. Many of them started out in banking in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis. All of them will have had an excellent 2018.

1. Spyros Kallipolitis

Spyros Kallipolitis is an equity derivatives trader at JPMorgan in New York. He joined the bank from Deutsche in 2015 and only began his banking career in 2008.

2. Omar Bennani

Omar Bennani is also an equity derivatives trader at JPM, but he's based in London. Bennani specializes in delta one products. He joined from Calyon in 2010 and began his banking career in 2007.

3. Gaurav Jain

Guarav Jain is an algo developer and quant researcher at JPMorgan who specializes in complex systems design. (He's also the head of electronic equities program trading solutions so this promotion may not be entirely reflective of personal pnl after all).

4. Desmond Lau

Lau is another equity derivatives trader, this time based in Hong Kong. He began working in banking in 2005 and joined JPMorgan in 2007 after a year each at Macquarie and Bank of America.

5. Marc Simpson

Simpson is a mortgage trader at JPM. He's spent his entire career at the bank after joining in 2003.

6. Deji Davies

Davies is a London-based MD at JPMorgan who's been there since August 2007. He specializes in distressed loan trading and previously spent four years at Rothschild.

7. Billy Wong

Like Simpson, Wong works in JPMorgan's New York securitized products team. He's been at the bank for 13 years after a year each at Barclays Capital and Citi.

8. Nok To

Nok To is a rates trader at JPMorgan in London. He joined the bank nearly 19 years ago after graduating in maths from Imperial College.

9. Lawrence Lau

Lau is an electronic FX trader at JPMorgan in Hong Kong. He's worked there nearly 12 years, after two years at Morgan Stanley and four years at Goldman Sachs.

10. Brian Fitzpatrick

Brian Fitzpatrick simply describes himself as a 'trader.' He's worked at JPM for 12 years, and covers Latin American rates and FX out of New York.

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